North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN Companies are recruiting people with “grit” to fill their job openings. This attribute provides an insightful way to recognize valuable applicants for hire. The term “grit” is based on author Angela Duckworth’s book, which describes how a person has acquired the strengths of “courage, perseverance, resilience, creativity, [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN Where did we get the idea that baby boomers and millennials can’t build good work relationships with each other? Why do we get caught up reinforcing this belief by using negative jargon that keeps us from finding good work partners, and limits our ability to achieve a [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN Human nature seems to follow this norm: Ignore an issue. Let disaster occur. Then fix it if its not too late. Not a very practical process. Often “the dangers of inaction,” are undermining us writes Joseph Coleman, author of “Unfinished Work: The Struggle to Build an Aging [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN Older adults continue to amaze us. At 77, John Glenn became the oldest person to go into space. At 86, Katherine Pelton swam the 200-meter butterfly in 3 minutes, 1.14 seconds, beating the men’s world record for that age group by more than 20 seconds. Today, at [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN Wearable devices are trending in the workplace. Fitbits, heart monitors and smart watches started this growing movement just a few years ago. Today they are among the plethora of accessories used to benefit workers and their employers by monitoring everything from health and safety to productivity. “These [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN Workplace stress causes untold physical and psychological harm to employees of all ages, and the cost of this debilitating health issue is staggering. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines job stress as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN She spent 25 years in the field of organizational behavior and, before that, a decade in public relations. It should not be a surprise what Gloria Dunn-Violin's "third career" is all about. She is talking and writing about retirement. In fact, it's not "retirement" as much [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN By 2030, more than 20 percent of U.S. residents are projected to be aged 65 and over, reports the U.S. Census Bureau. This expected avalanche of baby boomers seeking retirement will severely impact businesses, many of which continue employment policies that don’t reflect this changing demographic. The [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN “Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, according to a comprehensive new evaluation about the decline of social ties in the United States,” writes Shanker Vedantam, a reporter from the Washington Post. When Surgeon General Vivek Murthy was asked “what is [...]

North Bay Business Journal BY GLORIA DUNN VIOLIN Healthier longevity for many older adults has created demand for new products and services across multiple industries. Since more than 70 million baby boomers will have hit age 65 between now and 2030, this market will continue to grow. As the business sector captures this thriving niche [...]